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This handy 18-page editable document is designed to help school finance governors to support and challenge their setting's headteacher, principal or academy head when planning and setting the school budget. It contains reflective questions to be used in a constructive dialogue in the following areas:

• Budget planning
• Budget risk factors, contingency and compliance
• Income
• School improvement
• Contracts and benchmarking
• Staffing
• Pupil numbers and class sizes
• Pupil premium and SEND
• Deficit and recovery planning (use if applicable to your setting)
• Budget variation

For each question, there's space to note any discussion outcomes as well as the evidence you've gathered to support budget planning decisions. It can be used by both maintained schools and academies where governors or local board members support the academy's headteacher to plan the budget.

Whether you're a finance link governor, the chair of a governor finance committee or a school leader looking to support your governors, this checklist allows you to work collaboratively and ensure that governors are fulfilling one of the governing body's core functions of ensuring the sound, proper and effective use of the school’s financial resources.

👉 Looking for more budget support? This template is also available in the full School Budget Management Pack, which can also help you to plan your budget, upskill yourself on financial management and identify where cost savings can be made.

👉 For broader support for finance link governors that covers a fuller picture of the school's finances and governor skill development over time, our Finance Link Governor Support Pack may also be of interest.

Rising costs and reduced funding are huge challenges that schools face when managing their budgets. This supportive bundle, designed for headteachers, principals and school business managers, gives you four cost saving toolkits that you can utilise to explore how to maximise income coming into your school as well as reduce unnecessary costs. Each toolkit covers a key pain point in school budget management: low pupils numbers, high staffing costs, managing SEND and linked budgetary costs, and planning an effective and efficient school budget. These provide ideas and reflective questions to work through in order to identify cost-saving measures, supporting your thought process when managing and balancing your entire school budget.

For greatest effect, purchase the full pack which contains all four toolkits but each toolkit is available individually too. 👇

👉 Looking for more budget support? These templates are also available in the full School Budget Management Pack, which can also help you to plan your budget and evaluate your financial management understanding in order to develop your skills and knowledge.

This handy bundle focuses on exploring your financial management skills in order to effectively manage your school budget. Designed for headteachers, business managers or anyone with responsibility for finance in schools, the three resources in this pack can help you determine your current level of understanding about school budget management and, crucially, what knowledge and skills you need to develop to manage the budget effectively. For this reason, it's ideal for new heads, academy headteachers or anyone stepping into school budget management for the first time. 

👉 Looking for more budget support? These templates are also available in the full School Budget Management Pack, which can also help you to plan your budget and identify where cost savings can be made.

This full school budget management pack is perfect for any school leader who holds responsibility for the management of school finances, such as the headteacher, principal, academy head, school business manager (SBM) or another person in a similar role. The pack contains three distinct strands to support you:

• Cost saving toolkits to help you solve common problems when balancing your budget, including how to minimise expenditure and maximise income in different areas
• Financial management skills-based support to help you understand key terminology and concepts linked to budget management and identify where you may need further skill development
• Budget planning support, including ideas for finance governors when it comes to their role in budget planning and a handy budget planning checklist and calendar to help you stay on track throughout the year

This pack is ideal for those who are new to finances and budget management in schools but it can equally be used by experienced school leaders who are seeking further support.

This pack offers you best value for money if you want to get a better grip on your budget, but each strand is also available as a separate purchase should you need to explore a single area of budget management. 👉 School Budget Planning and Cost Saving Toolkit, School Budget Management Skills Bundle, Budget Planning Questions for Governors and Budget Planning Checklist and Calendar.

Struggling to get organised as a subject leader? This digital download is here to help! It contains a subject overview section that can help you to plot your priorities and goals for the academic year, plus three termly sections with monitoring templates for lesson observations, lesson drop-ins, book looks, planning scrutiny, pupil voice and more!

Containing 86 beautifully designed and printable pages, this subject leader planner will help you to keep all of your details, notes and ideas in a central place so you can keep on top of subject monitoring and all of the other tasks associated with subject leadership. Simply print it out and off you go... but first, choose your style from the six available! 👇

🔄 Updated for 2026

Clear roles make for more effective governors. This pack gives you ten fully editable roles and responsibilities templates for different link governor roles so every member of your governing board understands their purpose, their priorities and how to fulfil their responsibilities with a genuinely strategic focus.

You'll get:

☑️ Ten editable link governor roles and responsibilities templates – covering attendance, behaviour, curriculum, finance, GDPR and data protection, health and safety, pupil premium, safeguarding, SEND and staff, pupil and community welfare

☑️ Clarity for every governor – each template sets out the key duties, relevant policies, staff relationships and strategic focus for that role, so governors know exactly what they should be doing and why

☑️ Ready to use or adapt – use as-is or customise to reflect your school's context; templates can also serve as governor role terms of reference documents if needed

All templates are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.

👉 For support with a specific link governor role, the relevant link governor role and responsibilities template is also available in our individual link governor support packs. These packs also include a full set of link governor questions that can be used in a collaborative manner between schools leaders and governors, plus a reporting to governor template so governors have a better understanding of the school, leading to more effective governance.

🔒 Fully aligned to the 2026 Ofsted Inspection Toolkit and Framework and all 2026-2027 statutory guidance

This bundle is perfect for headteachers, trust leaders, governance professionals and SLT members who wish to be consistent in the way they report information to their governing board. The fourteen editable reporting templates will help your governing board to gain a clearer picture in each of the areas, which include reports for:

• attendance
• behaviour
• curriculum
• data protection
• EYFS
• finance
• headteacher's report to governors
• health and safety
• looked-after children
• pupil premium
• annual safeguarding report
• school well-being and personal development
• SEND and inclusion
• subject (can be used multiple times for different subjects)

Each template contains space for data and commentary, allowing governors to build a picture of the school's current position and the reasons behind this.

Regular reports to the relevant governor committees, the full governing board or your local board members allows all of your governors to make more effective strategic decisions because they'll hold a deeper understanding of the school. It can also support governors to share how they hold school leadership to account to ensure compliance, which is a crucial part of the Ofsted leadership and governance judgement and a key feature of an effective governing board.

👉 For support with a specific link governor role, the relevant report to governor template is also available in our individual link governor support packs. These packs also include full audits that can be used in a collaborative manner between schools leaders and governors, plus a role and responsibilities document to support link governors with their specific roles.

🔄 Updated for 2026

Effective link governors ask strong questions and this pack gives them the tools to do exactly that. Each set of structured questions supports a different link governor role, giving governors a practical starting point for exploring their area in depth, collaborating meaningfully with school leaders and fulfilling their strategic responsibilities with confidence. Whether you're supporting new governors or strengthening the skills of your board, these resources help shift governors' questions from operational to genuinely strategic.

You'll get:

☑️ Attendance and Behaviour – structured questions to support governors in exploring attendance systems, behaviour culture, policies and practice

☑️ Curriculum, Early Reading and EYFS – questions covering curriculum intent, implementation and impact, early reading and phonics, and EYFS provision

☑️ Safeguarding, SEND and Inclusion – questions across safeguarding, SEND, equality and accessibility, and pupil premium and disadvantaged pupils

☑️ Finance, GDPR and Health and Safety – questions to support governors in evaluating financial management, data protection and H&S compliance

☑️ Staff, Pupil and Community Wellbeing – questions to help governors explore staff workload and wellbeing provision across the school

All templates are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.

👉 To support a specific link governor role, these questions are also available in our individual link governor support packs. These packs include the relevant questions plus a report to governor templates and a role and responsibilities document.

🔄 Updated for 2026

Supporting your staff, pupil and community welfare link governor effectively takes structure, clarity and the right tools. This pack gives you exactly this, with three fully editable resources designed to strengthen wellbeing governance in your school, whether your link governor is new to role or needs more support to be highly effective.

You'll get:

☑️ Staff Workload and Wellbeing Questions for Governors and Trustees – 13 pages of structured questions to support meaningful collaboration between the welfare link governor and key school staff such as the SENDCo, pastoral leader and headteacher, plus a triangulating evidence section and an action plan template to document next steps

☑️ School Wellbeing and Personal Development Report to Governors Template – a clear, structured template covering wellbeing data and commentary, giving the full governing board the insight they need

☑️ Staff, Pupil and Community Welfare Link Governor Roles and Responsibilities – an editable outline of the welfare and wellbeing governor's key responsibilities, ideal for onboarding a new governor or bringing clarity to an existing role

All resources are fully editable so you can adapt them to reflect your school's context and needs.